Tag Archives: archivo municipal de Mazatlán

Behind the Chamber 2017: Four-Note Opera

 

Concert director Gordon Campbell
Stage manager Marcela Beltrán
Soprano Arizbe Barrera
Pianist Aldo Tercero
Mezzosoprano Isis Nefer
Tenor Héctor Coyol Muñoz
Baritone José Manuel González Caro

The eighth and final concert in this year’s 2017 Temporada Campbell will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at noon  in the Angela Peralta Theater.

I interviewed Maestro Gordon Campbell and Guianeya Román in a sneak peek of the concert. To hear their “Behind the Chamber” interview about the performance click on the video below. Please note the video was created before a date change in the program; the date shown in the video is incorrect.

You can purchase your tickets for specific concerts (300 pesos each) or a series pass (2000 pesos) at the Angela Peralta Theater box office—open 9am-3pm and 5-7pm—or online at CULTURA Mazatlán.

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Support the Camerata
Tax-deductible donations to recover costs of the Camerata and the community chorus are received by the Patronato Philomusica AC, Banco Bajio account number 14166839. Your donation is tax-deductible in Mexico and worldwide. Please help support the high caliber of arts in our community by pledging generously!

To watch other Behind-the-Chamber interviews click here.

Behind the Chamber 2017: Bach, Handel and Copland

We have been publishing a series of interviews with Maestro Gordon Campbell in which he gives us a sneak peek of the concerts in the 2017 Temporada Campbell. The fourth concert of the series will be held on Sunday, February 5, 2017 at noon in the Angela Peralta Theater. Entitled “Bach, Handel and Copland,” the concert will include violinists Olena Bogaychuk, Olga Khudoblayak, Xavier Tortosa and Victoria Camacho; violists Carlos Guadarrama and Virna Cornejo; cellists Laurentius Gafton and Octavio Hidalgo; bassist Mikhail Magaev; flautist Peter Földesi; clarinetist Luis Zamora; bassoonist Austin Isaac Way; and pianist Zlatina Nokolaeva Valkova Petkova.

To hear Maestro Gordon Campbell’s “Behind the Chamber” interview about the performance click on the video below.

The full concert series takes place through March 5, 2017. You can purchase your tickets for specific concerts (300 pesos each) or a series pass (2000 pesos) at the Angela Peralta Theater box office—open 9am-3pm and 5-7pm—or online at CULTURA Mazatlán.

15442147_1229524153781300_656067471523188239_n

Support the Camerata
Tax-deductible donations to recover costs of the Camerata and the community chorus are received by the Patronato Philomusica AC, Banco Bajio account number 14166839. Your donation is tax-deductible in Mexico and worldwide. Please help support the high caliber of arts in our community by pledging generously!

To watch other Behind-the-Chamber interviews click here.

It’s a Horse Parade!

CabalgataDo you love horses? Do you love an excuse to party, and are amenable to doing so before, during and after you ride 25 kilometers on a horse? Do you have kids who enjoy watching horses dance? If so, you ought to join in the Familia Escobar’s cabalgata or cavalcade next year. The cabalgata is held up in Cerritos on the second to last weekend in January every year, and this time 600 horses and riders, from five states of Mexico, participated.

This was so very different from our first cabalgata—in Jerez de Zacatecas, on Holy Saturday of 2011. That one hosted thousands of charros with incredibly beautiful sombreros, tooled leather and embroidered suits. Here in Mazatlán, it’s puro Sinaloa, baby! Most everyone wore a cowboy hat rather than a sombrero, though we did see a few baseball caps as well. Almost everyone had a bandanna around their neck, jeans instead of leather, knee-high leather boots, and either a brightly colored shirt or a plaid shirt instead of an embroidered, fancy mariachi-like top. And, in typical Mazatlán style, we saw one guy without a shirt.

Princess of the parade

One surprising thing, at least to us: they were drinking a whole lot less here than what we witnessed in Jerez. Amazing? I’m confident they made up for it at the final ranch, or perhaps it’s because this is much more a family event, but we only saw beer, not the quantity of tequila and whiskey that we did in spring 2011 in Zacatecas. I will also say that Mazatlán wins, hands-down, in the friendliness department!

Men, women, children, couples, families, and singles participated. Riders told us there were over 1000 people participating, Tourism reported 600, but at most we saw 250-300 pass by us. We waited on the beach in Delfín for quite a while, significantly north of the bridge. However, the riders must have turned back to the road from the beach quite a ways north of Delfín, because we only saw a few on the beach—the bulk of them we saw on the road to Emerald Bay.

The cabalgata started at Rancho Chuchupira, which is about 14 km north of town. Because the bridge is under construction, the riders this year rested at Oceanica, the drug rehab center in Delfín just north of the wonderful new bridge. There the facility’s staff watered the horses, and guys on 4-wheelers handed out beer and water. The riders continued south along the railroad tracks, turning west for another rest at Rancho El Palomo, and then ate lunch and partied with beer, food and banda music at Rancho Las Habas. Quite a deal for 150 pesos! We met riders from Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Durango and the USA, and were struck by how incredibly friendly everyone was. Greg and I both received multiple offers to hop on a horse and join the fun.

Photo from the cabalgata in Cerritos

If you’ve never witnessed a cabalgata, it’s worthwhile taking the opportunity. Sinaloa is farm country; raising horses is part of one people do on the ranchos here. Cabalgatas are another wonderful cultural opportunity we can avail ourselves of here in Mazatlán. I do, however, recommend you ride rather than just observe. Looks a whole lot more fun!

Municipal Treasures

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You’ve walked by it dozens of times, as you leave the Plazuela and head down towards Topolo or the Mercado Pino Suarez—El Archivo Municipal. It’s a beautiful and colorful old building, but have you ever peeked in?

Yesterday Greg and I got a terrific tour by a long-lost acquaintance of ours, Chon (Concepción), who was our waiter back in the day at the Hotel Camino Real, where we were married. We were thrilled to see it all! Our city, Mazatlán, has (literally) tons of written archives dating back to the early 1800s. It is a treasure trove of history and heritage!!! Rooms and rooms full of city historical records, piled floor to ceiling, many dating from the early 1800s! We saw some of the earliest maps of Mazatlán, Angela Peralta’s wedding certificate, construction permits for some of our most historic buildings, etchings of the French invasion of our port, and editions of every newspaper ever published in our fair city. Click on any photo to view it larger or see a slideshow.

While in Europe, Canada or the US such an archive might be something we take for granted or at least expect, the fact that we here in Mazatlán have such an incredible resource is truly remarkable! Culiacán’s archive burned down, so they lost most of their historical records. But, throughout the centuries and despite decades of minimal funding, our Archivo Municipal is a sight to behold! Historians, researchers, university and school-aged students are able to come in here to look up what they need to know, thanks to the foresight and perseverance of our forebears.

We met, or re-met, Chon, who speaks beautiful English. We met the lovely Lorena Ferral, who is so excited to see interest in the archives. They are very passionate about the work they do. They love the treasures they guard and catalog to the best of their abilities—and the limited resources allocated to them. The head of the Municipal Archive is Aristeo—Sergio Aristeo Herrera y Cairo Yarahuan—though he was not present during our tour yesterday.

Staff members bind some of the documents by hand, using serviceable yet antique, artesanal equipment. I thought you might like to see.

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How did we come to be at the Municipal Archive? For several years we’ve been loving the photos of Viejo Mazatlán that the Amigos Viejo Mazatlán group has been sharing on Facebook. A year or so ago, we met Fernando Higuera when we went to the Plazuela to buy a CD of the photos from him. Monies received were earmarked to fund a museum of the photos of old Mazatlán. Since then, the Amigos Viejo Mazatlán has held several exhibitions, historical talks, and fundraising events. I wrote about one of those events here.

We’ve stayed involved with the group, and we keep hoping and working to create space for a photo museum here in town. The good news for our small yet significant project is that we might be given a room at the Municipal Archive in which to display historic photos of our fair city. What is especially exciting to me is the perfect dovetail this would be! Amigos Viejo Mazatlán could display historic photos alongside documents from the city archive. The Municipal Archive could be reinvigorated by public talks and events, by locals and tourists coming in to view photos, thus raising awareness of the treasures it guards within.

The Municipal Archive needs time and attention! Many of the documents are fading, crumbling; they need expert care. If you have archivist or restoration skills, please let Lorena Ferral at the Archive (981-00-48) or Fernando Higuera of Amigos Viejo Mazatlán know! Join with us to help preserve and make public Mazatlán’s rich history!

The archive has a small display of books on Mazatlán’s history, along with a price sheet. If you read Spanish, you may be interested in a volume or three.

This is yet one more piece of bright news for our city’s heritage! Right now, several new museums are in various stages of planning: one of Sinaloan music, another on Carnavál history, and the new Neto Coppel city museum that was front page news earlier this week. To us that is all good news. Mazatlán has so much to be proud of! Locals, national and international tourists need to know about our claims to fame! And a city that is proud of its heritage builds on its strengths. I’d like to wish godspeed to all these worthwhile projects.